


Let's improvise

by Amaniaclikenoiz



Category: MacGyver (TV 2016)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-10
Updated: 2020-08-30
Packaged: 2020-10-14 01:17:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 16,910
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20592272
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Amaniaclikenoiz/pseuds/Amaniaclikenoiz
Summary: Nikki has vanished yet again and it's driving Mac insane. When Jack notices that he feels especially down, he tries to cheer him up with his favorite TV show and some beer, trying to help him talk about what's going on. His plan is a success, as the alcohol loosens Macs tongue, yet so is his own, which in hindsight, might have been quite a large oversight....





	1. Nothing a little alcohol can't fix

**Author's Note:**

> I have not yet seen the second season in its entirety, but thanks to my gf I am obsessed, so please bear with me. Also: Originally this idea started as a one shot, but now there is more to come!

Jack hadn't trusted the peace right from the get go. This whole deal with Nikki did more damage to Mac, than it ever did good. Sure. He was glad that Mac had been right in the end , as he usually was, but the whole ordeal had wrecked him. Of course he would only admit that it had bothered his keen detective senses, that he knew something had been off, but Jack knew better. He knew Mac better. It had been an emotional roller coaster and not one of the fun kind. It mostly went down, probably dug itself into the earth at some point.

Either way, after she'd returned, all redeemed and revealed as a deep cover agent, things seemed to be getting better. He'd been happy for Mac, he really was. After all, all Jack wanted for the guy was some luck and happiness. Well mostly happiness. The master of improvisation definitely had more luck than any other person he knew anyways. Nonetheless, he still couldn't bring himself to fully trust her. Too much had happened and a relationship built on lies and false pretense, not to mention all the things it was impossible to talk about was bound to fail. He knew that all too well and he wanted for his best friend to do better than that. 

Not too long after their reunion, Macs happy expression had been replaced by an all a too familiar grim look of dismay. Judging by the added exponential growth in mass of the reformed paperclips, Mac clearly had been hugely distressed. When Jack confronted him about it, he only showed him a picture of a note he'd taken a few days ago.

“It's from Nikki” he remarked dryly, trying not to put any emotion on display. This in itself was indication enough and all of Jacks protective instincts became highly alerted.

Looking at the note, Jack had only shook his head. So in the end, things came to what they had to. Nikki had disappeared. Again. Without a word, no less. At least she'd been nice enough to leave a note though. I'll be back. Did she think she was Arnold Schwarzenegger? What kind of goodbye was that? His friend was barely able to convince Jack to drop the subject and just leave it be. MacGyver knew he wouldn't like the outcome already and didn't see the point in any discussion.

That was three months ago. Still no word, no secret message, no flower with hidden meaning thrown into the mail box. Not a hint. Jack had to watch Mac go insane. He tried to track her down, but as soon as Webber realized it and pointed out that it was clearly distracting him from work, he had to go back to searching in secret again. Because that worked so well last time. Well, all his friends suspected, or rather flat out knew it, but they all also knew there was no stopping him. They rather secretly helped him, ensuring some level of safety than being shut out, not able to do anything. 

One morning Mac came into work looking especially wrecked. “You look like shit man” Jack let him know.

An exasperated sigh. “Yes, yes, everyone seems to be eager to point that out today. I am aware.” Mac tried to comb his hair with his fingers, sorting his clothes a little, but they both knew that that was not helping. It was his face, his tired, sorrow ridden face and the approximately twelve shades of dark circles under his eyes that made him look like he escaped him the set of the Walking Dead.

“Look, if you need to talk-”

“Thanks, but no thanks. There is nothing to talk about.” Mac let himself fall unto the couch, seeming more heavy than usual. 

Jack made a motion circling first his own, then pointing at the blondes face.”Clearly.”

“Just leave it. I'll be ok.”Mac got saved by the bell, as the boss walked in, clearly not going to allow any more personal talk. On top of that the chances to get the guy to open up in front of Riley and Bozer were practically zero, so this had to wait. 

Luckily, the job was, while dangerous, at least only about a day or two worth of work, meaning he would be able to pick the conversation back up soon .Even if watching his friend like that did drive him crazy in the back of his mind. Still, he had to focus on the job first, after all they had to make it out alive, if he wanted to get a chance to talk later on. 

Jack made sure to get Bozer out the house, there was a fancy premiere of some film involving his favorite monster make-up artist, including a huge buffet. He pulled strings and got the boy in, and as planned it didn't need any real convincing to make Bozer attend. Geek stuff and free food? How could he resist?

Now that he had made sure they had some space at Macs place, he grabbed a few cans of beer, okay maybe a few more, practically pulled Mac by the arm and sat him down in front of the TV. He'd promised him to watch that weird show with him anyways, so he didn't suspect anything. Now he just had to get him to talk. Just like Mac had done for him all those times before. Easy, right?

Of course is wasn't. The evening kept growing later and later, as did the mount of empty beer cans. Still no talking. Well, no talking about his issues anyways. Why did it always seem so easy when Mac did it? He always just knew what to do, how to comfort Jack. Still, he'd be damned if he wasn't going to be able to get his friend to talk. If he didn't want to start, then fine. He'd just have to do that too. 

"So. Girl trouble eh?" No response. Great start! "Ah come on. Talk to me buddy. You know you can. I'm all ears"

Mac shook his head. "I told you to leave it. I don't have anything more to say. I don't even know why I bothered. I knew there was a high probability of this happening. And yet” he emptied the rest of his beer and handed Jack his phone with an email on it. Leave it alone. Stop looking.

“Wow. That all?”

“Yup. Riley can't trace it, try as she might.”

“Two sentences this time, really made an effort I guess?”

“Obviously she doesn't want me to get in her way. Yet, here I went again, I worry and worry.” He paused. “I couldn't even sleep at times. She might be dead, I thought. Might be in a prison somewhere. Maybe she'll be away for years, maybe she'll never come back, who knows? And all she has to say is 'leave me alone'.”

“I'm sorry man. That's rough.”

“It's okay. I'm more angry than anything. At her, her job, our jobs, really and at myself. Why do I have to be the one beating myself up again ?" making a disgruntled noise, the blonde reached for a new beer. Clearly he intended to flush down the feelings he'd just let gush out.

"You shouldn't. You did nothing wrong. You deserve someone who can be honest and by your side." Mac scoffed and demonstratively turned himself back to the TV, trying to move on from the conversation. 

A silence followed and Jack knew, knew all too well he should have stopped like two beers ago, but to heck with that. Sometimes you gotta fog up your mind a bit to think clearly. Ignoring the others wish to ignore the issue at hand, Jack said “You know, you deserve better, right?"

“Jack...”

“Don't you 'Jack me'! You know I'm right!”

Mac shrugged. "Maybe. I mean I'm not the perfect boyfriend either, I guess" Mac also turned back to his beer. Good thing the beer industry ran on broken hearts and people trying to run from their problems. “ I mean in our line of work it's hard to be, you know.”

"Oh please! You're incredibly smart, reliable,only need like five beers to talk about your feelings, have a smashing kind of humor-"

"Smashing? Who even says that?”Mac teased with with his usual cocky smile. Well, at least he was smiling. That was some sort of success, right? 

Gesturing a little too broadly, due to a lack of motoric finesse while drunk, Jack visually supported his next statement. “ Well your kind of humor is to mix the weirdest chemicals and trash you can find and blow up the next best door or spy. Doesn't that smash things?”

“Really, Jack?"

"Oh please, tell me I'm wrong and you did not laugh your ass off when that Russian lost his toupé as you blew up his suitcase?" Jack was grinning.

"You got me there I guess.” Jack was glad to hear at least a little laughter awing with Macs voice. “Man, you're drunk"

"And so are you" he said, pointing a finger on his chest. “Night successful!” They both proceeded to pretended to watch the TV for a while, but really they didn't even know what the episode was about anymore. Good thing Mac already knew these by hard and Jack didn't actually care.

"You know" Jack started again, after a short while " I would never do that to you, right?" 

Somewhere between confused and annoyed Mac only glanced at him to ask "Do what?"

"Leave you." 

"Really?" Mac asked, this time more amused than anything.

The fact that Mac wasn't taking his suggestion seriously annoyed him more than he could say. "I mean it Mac. I'll be by your side, come what may. I'll be like damn herpes. Can't get rid of me."

The blond let a full blown laughter echoe through the room. "Thanks. So herpes is the better I deserve ?" 

"Not herpes, me, you big doofus" he paused. “Sometimes you're really stupid for being a genius.” while sipping his beer, Jack started to realize what he just said. Wait what did he just say? He was not entirely sure, but he was sure that either Mac was going to laugh even louder now, which, granted, would suck, but at least he'd have gotten his humor back, or he would probably throw him out on bases of being too drunk to think anymore. Which, of course, was not entirely wrong either. 

"You mean that? "

"I... don't know what I mean man.” Another pause. God suddenly it was really hard to talk. “ But I said what I said. You're the genius, so you tell me"and with that he painfully realized he had no more beer to awkwardly sip from. Time to grab another can. 

Mac stopped him and finally fully turned around to face him head on. Then he seemed to think it over and Jack started to wish he had dug himself a hole to jump into. He should have brought a shovel just in case. He made a mental note for next time. 

After what seemed to be an eternity to the beerless Jack, the other slowly began to talk."I... I think you just asked me out. In a weird way, but it sure sounded like it". 

"Did I now..." Jack wondered.

Neither of them said anything for a long time. Jack could have sworn that time had stopped moving, if it weren't for the DVD which started to try and catch their attention by informing them that the next CD needed to be put in at some point. Neither of them paid any attention to it. They rather stared at basically anything in the room and then each other, while the other wasn't looking. Well at least he hoped that Mac was doing the same. There was not much that could make the situation more embarrassing, but being caught staring would definitely be one of them. 

The first one to speak again and finally break the wall of silence was Mac, who seemed to be surprisingly uneffected by the alcohol. Lucky bastard. "Did you? "

"Did I what?" he had about no more patience for puzzles right now. 

"Ask me out?"Mac's blue eyes were fixated on him. Usually he more than appreciated those sharp, analytical eyes, but now they just felt like a magnifying glass and he could swear he'd just turned into an ant. Which also explained his general current lack of courage. Well at least he hadn't turned into a mouse.

“I told you, I don't know. I just said what came to mind” he tried to sound calm and relaxed, but was sure he failed at that too. Why did those eyes always have to seem to bring out the truth from right out of his damn brain? It just wasn't fair at all.

The blond combed through his hair with one hand and placed the other arm on top of the backrest. This time it was obvious that he was carefully thinking about what to say next. Jack could practically hear the gears in his head turning. 

“Okay, let me phrase this differently” he began, shifting around on the couch. At least he didn't seem to know how to handle himself right now either. “Do you want to be my boyfriend?” 

Jack put his beer can down, blinking". Are you asking me out?"

"I'm trying to figure out whether you were asking me out!" the other man gestured lostly into the dark room. "So, do you and were you?"

Turning to fully face Mac, squinting his eyes, Jack asked with as much conviction as he could mister up at this point "Well do you?"

Neither of them answered and they starred at each other blankly like two parked cars. Mac massaged the root of his nose like he just got hit by the worst headache he'd ever had. "Alright. This is getting us nowhere "

"Finally we agree."Jack muttered and let himself sink back into the cushions a little deeper. He wasn't relaxing really, he just felt too defeated to sit up straight. 

"Jack. Look at me" and he'd thought his voice couldn't get any softer from before.

"I am Sherlock. What is it?"

"Do you have feelings for me? Be honest. Please." Macs face didn't give away anything about what he would like the answer to be. Meaning he was trying really hard to conceal his feelings. That was either really good, or really bad.

Either way, Jack was sure his head was about to explode and he suddenly felt way more sober than he wanted to be. Not physically, but mentally. He couldn't muster a straight answer, as much as everything was going round and round in his head. All those thoughts he'd been trying to swallow for what felt like forever. He'd never in a thousand years expected this conversation, this question or the fact that he would ever, even for a second, consider to answer truthfully. They were friends, colleagues. This wasn't a direction to think in. He'd always been so sure of that. Now though? Not so much. If there was a chance the interest was mutual, well...but he was getting way ahead of himself.

"Well I...you know. You're the smartest guy I know, I trust you with my life and I spend any minute I can with you..... Well...I don't know.... maybe? Probably ? This is stupid... "

"Jack. It's not stupid, but that's also not an answer. Please-"

Jack was sick of trying to think. He'd never really been any good at that. There was a reason why, within their field team, he was the muscle and his friend was the brain. He was a man of action, not a man of big words, or thinking of complex answers. So instead of wrecking his head over this, he decided to go the quick, more easy to understand route and just find out. Hence he didn't let him finish whatever it was Mac was trying to say and instead leaned into the blonds conveniently open space and stopped just inches before the others face. 

“Jack” his own name echoed within his head. He waited for Mac to push him away, tell him to back off, or give any other sign for him to stop. It never came. Instead Jack reached for that stupidly beautiful face in front of him and cupped it with his right hand. Still no sign of either of them pulling back. It was now or never. His heart was racing like he was running from enemy fire and he felt like his head was filled with cotton wool. He was as nervous as when he was sixteen and in the back of his car with his first love all over again. He felt like a moron, but luckily that had never stopped him before, so he finally, slowly, carefully closed the gap between their lips.

It was like drinking water on a hot summer day. You never know how much you need it, until it's finally touching your lips. It was only brief, but god was it sweet. Jack didn't want to push his luck, so he slowly, reluctantly began retracting. To his absolute surprise, there was a hand burring itself into his neck, holding him close. Mac called his name again,  
this time its tone, while still soft, was very different. There was no holding himself back now. Quickly he pressed his lips back onto Macs, who happily hummed a welcoming sound. Turns out the blond was not the only on who was good at improvisation.

Another pleasant surprise hit Jack, when he felt the others kisses get more hungry, like he'd been starving for this just as much as himself. Jack enjoyed the feeling of those kisses and Macs hand now in his hair for a while longer, before he daringly asked for permission to explore the blonds mouth with his tongue, which he too was granted. Mac tasted like that shitty beer they'd been drinking, his weird construction of a pizza and deliciously sweet in between. Mindlessly, he let the hand he'd placed on his face slide down to his stomach, stroking it, until placing it on his friends side. 

When Mac had to catch his breath and hence not really a chance to say anything, Jack finally muttered "Okay. I might. Possibly. Totally. Have stupidly fallen for you. Maybe. "

The cocky bastard in front of him laughed softly and with a wide smile, pulled Jack back in.


	2. A river in Egypt

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Last night left Jack with a headache and a whole lot of confusion. Of course this has negative effects on the team's dynamic, but somehow, Jack swears to himself, he will get through this. After all, it was just a moment of alcohol infused stupidy and nothing more. He just has to keep telling himself that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, here goes chapter two. I couldn't just leave the situation hanging and untangling is always one of the fun things to write for me. Anyways, enjoy!

Jack felt like he was hypnotized by the guy beneath him, unable to think of anything else than what they were currently doing. Maybe it was the alcohol, he tried to convince himself, but deeper down he knew it was a lie. He was simply enticed by his best friends hungry kisses, his hand grabbing the back of his neck and the way he was moving beneath his hand. Jack wondered how far he could go, heck, how far he'd even dare to go. 

Clicking, a key rustling. Shit. Now he definitely wouldn't find out, because Bozer chose the worst timing to come back home. 

“Yo Mac, you guys still at it?” he yelled from over at the entrance. 

“Shit.”Cursing further under his breath Jack haphazardly fixed his clothes and got up, hoping his position didn't seem too suspicious. He cleared his throat. “Nah man, I uh, I was just leaving.” Pointing towards the DVD player which was still asking to replace the CD, he added “That seemed like a good point to stop at”. Jack awkwardly waved Mac goodbye and headed for the door.

“See you tomorrow” 

“Huh, wha- oh yeah, yeah work. Right. See you at work” 

“How many beers did you have man?” Bozer asked half laughing at him. 

“Too many.”

“Obviously” They hugged shortly and Jack felt like he practically ran out the door. What a night. 

****  
“Argh fuck.” he smacked his alarm clock. Loud bastard. Although actually he was the idiot who drank too much, which made a worm crawling over lose dirt seem loud, he still blamed the stupid clock for being too loud. It did't have to scream at him like that. Not to mention the neighbors kids being up and running. Literally. Where did they take that energy from? 

Groaning, he turned over, facing the aforementioned alarm clock. He still had a few minutes to sulk and feel like an idiot before getting up, perfect. More than enough time think about what had happened with Mac. What exactly had even happened? While, yeah they ended up making out and he sort of confessed- well ok, maybe he looked like a total idiot and entirely confessed. Why on earth did he do that? Sure, he'd been drunk and the blond had asked him to be honest, but come on. That was just embarrassing. What was he going to say to his best friend now? Should he actually ask him out? Did he even want their relationship to go that way? Fuck. He should have just shut his mouth. He should probably just pretend he didn't mean it. Just the alcohol talking. Yeah, that sounded like a solid excuse. Now he just had to make himself believe it first and hope for the best. All of this was straight up insane. 

The alarm blared again. With a sleepy grunt he sat up, face in hands, trying to wake himself up. Maybe Mac wasn't even going to address it. Maybe he too was just embarrassed and going to ignore it. Yeah. Right. And tomorrow Jack was going to have breakfast with both the Easter bunny and Santa himself. With a few more curses Jack finally convinced himself to get ready for work. His head kept swirling with possible catastrophes he might encounter when he got there, but he had to get himself together. He couldn't let any of their colleagues know. The whole thing was messy enough without having any of them try and give their opinion on it as well. 

Jack jointed Riley and Mac in the conference room. While he tried his best to hold them back, his eyes immediately darted onto the blonds lips. Damn it. Quickly averting his eyes he starred at Riley's laptop instead, muttering “Morning guys”.  
After a short answer from both of them, the room fell weirdly silent. Both of them sort of awkwardly tried not to look at each other and Riley was working on something on her laptop. Jack would've bet a lot of money that Mac was missing the paper clips Webber had taken away dearly by now. Jack had never noticed how ugly the ceiling was. Maybe they should ask permission to paint it over, so that future awkwardness was at least accompanied by a nice view. Maybe a bull, or some nice muscle car. That would be nice. 

“Almost forgot. I uh promised Bozer to check on something in the lab.” Mac remarked while already leaving the room. 

Well that went well. This was not at all going to be a problem in the future. He should probably never drink more than two beers around Mac ever again. Just to be save. 

“What the hell happened? You piss him off?” Riley wasn't looking up from her work, but still raised an eyebrow. Never to busy to throw some attitude.

“What? No. Why would you think that?”

“Because I never saw the two of you in the same room without either of you blabbering away.”

“And?”

“And it's more likely that he was giving you the silent treatment. You wouldn't be able to pull that off for more than five minutes. “

“Oh please I would totally pull it off! I would never talk to him again, if necessary!” what the hell was he even talking about?

“What the hell man?” Riley closed her laptop. “What's up?”

“Nothing”

“Right. You just really like counting the holes in the ceiling. Nothing was weird just now. Mac also didn't just use a bs excuse to get out of this. Sure.”

“See? Now you get it.”

“Jack, Come on. What'd you do?”

“Nothing. God, can't two guys just run out of things to say?” she really had to stop poking around. Jack could only imagine how much teasing would ensue, if she was to find out. 

“They can. You two though? No way. Your level of codependency is insane. He even once told me he can't work if you don't constantly talk nonsense in the background.” 

“Nonsense? He said nonsense?”

Riley rolled her eyes. “ Jack that's not what-”

She was cut off by Webber entering the room, followed by Bozer and Mac. There. Jack survived Riley's interrogation without giving in. Maybe he could do this after all.  
Webber explained the next mission. Nothing unusual, a stake out, then undoing the ring of criminals and making sure the stolen materials were found and returned. Him, Mac and Riley were to go out together and take care of everything. Perfect. This meant he could use Riley as a sort of middle man between him and Mac. He so wasn't ready to talk yet and would hence avoid it at least until they would be back home. Or until next week. Or, you know, until hell froze over.

***

Of course the universe didn't agree. Everything had gone according to plan up until, of course, it didn't. When did it ever. They got all the information they needed, the idiots almost fed it to them on a silver platter, him and Mac talked strictly about mission relevant things, meaning very little overall and Riley obviously still wasn't convinced that nothing had happened, but for now everyone just focused on the job. Except when the job blew up in their faces. Literally. It all had seemed too easy of course, but Jack had hoped that they simply ended up being lucky for once. Which was naive, but come. He wasn't asking for much, was he? But a man needs to be allowed to hope sometimes. The robbers had smelled them from miles away and played them like a fiddle. Or a Game boy. Fiddles were much harder to play than what had happened here. 

“You guys alright?” that was Riley over the intercom.

“Yeah, we're in one piece, but we're stuck. They destroyed the exits and the only way is up. Clearly a trap.” Mac explained, while they were dusting themselves off. How was there so much concrete in such a small door? 

“Ok, be careful. I'll keep eyes and ears on the outside.”

“Thanks Riley.”

Now they were on their own. Great. He could do this. He was a grown, mature man after all. Granted, he felt almost as helpless as a damn sixteen year old, going through this shit for the first time, but then again, he'd never had to sort things out with neither his best friend nor a co-worker. First time for everything. 

“Okay, let's not lose our heads here. Let's secure downstairs and then move up. Preferably with a plan.” Jack had decided to keep focussing on the mission. Hard. 

“Sounds good. I'll take the east wing, keep me updated.” and with that Mac started moving. That went surprisingly smoothly. Maybe he was going to be unscathed after all.

Jack gladly focused on checking out the lower rooms. Kitchen- Clear. Dining room- super dirty and disgusting, but clear. Weird room stuffed with old people things and dolls- creepy, but also clear. 

“All clear Mac.” No answer. “Mac? You copy?” Nothing. Except for a loud crash coming from the room across the hall. Of course. 

Jack rushed over, keeping his head down. Mac was fighting off a single guy. Well. A single giant. Jack quickly weighed out his options and then ran in head first, aiming for Goliath's knees, wrestling him to the ground. It didn't keep him there long, especially as the giant just kicked him off easily. Luckily, Mac, swift as always, had grabbed an expensive looking vase and smashed it on the guys head. The guy bled alright, but didn't go down. 

“Come on!”Jack was frustrated. This was ridiculous. 

The stupidly strong guy still kept them busy for a few minutes, until Mac vanished out of the line of sight, meaning Jack had to keep Goliath busy, while the blond went on and crafted one of his last minute traps. Next time he saw his best friend, he signaled him to run toward the blond. Good thing Jack had stopped questioning that guy's ideas a long time ago. Otherwise he would have thought of this one as astoundingly stupid. Luckily, he saw a weird thing flying past him, hit the giant, wrap around his feet and make him fall. Well, crash really. The muscular robber hit a table very unsightly with his head and was finally out cold. Checking his pulse revealed he was still alive, which, at this point, wasn't even surprising anymore. They quickly tied the guy up and took a second to breathe. 

“You ok? He hit you pretty hard back there", Mac checked in on him.

“Look who's talkin'! Your eye is black and I think he tore your shirt man”

Mac took a disgruntled look. “You're right. Well, we should check upstairs. The longer we take, the more likely it is that they are prepared for us.”

Jack pointed toward the unconscious giant. “I think they were pretty darn prepared Mac. Let's watch our asses extra close up there” 

“Jack, gross.” Riley remarked over the intercom. 

“You didn't see the guy! Where do they grow those, geez.”

“Probably on healthier food than pizza and beer.” Jack only scoffed at that. “ Anyways, hurry up guys. I listened in on their radios and back up is on the way. If you want to get out of there without having to fight off very heavy resistance, I would stop chatting and get to work”

“We will, thanks Riley. Come on Jack.” 

They headed up the stairs, eyes and ears on each other backs and surroundings. Everything was suspiciously quiet. 

“I don like thi-” Mac shushed him, pointing at a large crack on the wall in the room across the hall. 

“Secret room.” He held his arm out. “You left foot, trip wire.” 

Jack carefully stepped over and assumed the same low voice Mac just used. “ Ok, they are waiting for us. Now what”

He didn't even know why he'd asked, which lead to both of them answering “Improvise.”

They carefully moved to a free room, in which Mac looked around for some improvisation materials. Jack kept watch. 

“I can't work like this” Mac remarked. 

“Like what?”

“In silence. I need background noise.”

“Well I just don't have much to say today.” Jack crossed his arms. Mac stopped looting. 

“I noticed. So, wanna talk about what happened?”

“Now? Really? We're in the middle of maybe being blown up, in case you forgot.”

“So? When aren't we? But we can't keep working like this. Well at least I can't.” Mac went back to rummaging through cupboards and the overflowing closet. 

“In silence? I mean I dunno, I can talk about something I guess.”

“No. Well I mean yes. We can't avoid each other, or talking about last Wednesday. " He grabbed some junk from the closet. "Hold this.” he handed him a bunch of cables and chemicals. Something explosive seemed to be on the menu today.

“ Well what is there to talk about? We were both drunk and stupid.”

Mac stopped again to look at him. “ So what are you saying?”

“I'm saying it won't happen again and I should drink less.” technically that was not a lie. He was not going to let this thing disrupt their friendship or their work. Especially not without knowing if he even wanted to pursue anything romantic.

“So it didn't mean anything?”

“Nope” Okay maybe he was lying a bit now.

“Not the kissing, the touching or the confession?”

Right now Jack really, really wished he'd tripped over the damn trip wire. Would have been much easier. “Yeah man, just the alcohol talking.” Mac didn't seem convinced. “Come on man, let's just get back to work. This is what we're good at. Being partners. Friends. So let's just make your... bomb? This is going to be a bomb, right?” 

Mac sighed. “Yes it is. Fine. If that's really what you want, then I'll try to pretend nothing happened.”

“Yupp, let's do exactly that.” 

“Have it your way then.”Shaking his head, Mac picked up some more ingredients and the ones Jack was holding and started working.

After a minute or two, Jack started talking about this that and how he was going to buy new rims for his mustang. Following that, everything went as usual. Jack went in first, distracting the targets, Mac prepared his contraption, into which Jack lured the robbers and they almost blew up with them. Almost. The extraction worked fine and Riley called them idiots for almost getting caught in the back up, because they took forever to come up with a plan. 

Back at Phoenix headquarters things finally came back to normal. They reported everything they had to and him and Mac finally talked again. They were still a little stiff, but they would get over it eventually. They had to. He couldn't lose his best friend because of some stupid alcohol mistake. Although he didn't want to think of it as that. He'd enjoyed himself too much. An alcohol slip up. That sounded a little more friendly. Just an accidental slip into some impractical feelings. Or something. 

“Hey Jack, come over a sec, will ya?” 

That was odd. Usually Riley didn't need to talk to him in private. He had a bad feeling about this. “What's up?”

“You, me, pizza and ski ball, tonight at eight. No excuses.” He'd seldom seen her this serious. 

“Well, I..." A death glare from Riley. "Sure, I guess. You ok?”

“Yes, I'm good Jack. We still need to talk.” 

“Alright, alright. See you there I guess.” Jack was more than mildly worried. Riley voluntarily attending the arcade? Now that spelled disaster. 

***

After Jack got some pizza, half because of it being tradition, half to hopefully soothe the awkwardness, they sat down at a table which gave them at least a little privacy. “So,” he said between munches, “ what's on your heart?”

“It's more about yours, actually.” 

“Wha-?” he should really stop talking with his mouth full. 

“Jack, you do realize I heard you guys? The entire time?” He looked at her blankly. More out of the fact, that his brain refused to process what she'd just pointed out, rather than not understanding her. She rolled her eyes. “ Your talk? You guys made out? There was apparently a confession? Need I go on?” 

Now he chocked on the rest of the pizza in his mouth. Shit. Buying some time chewing what was left in his mouth and taking a sip from his soda, he tried to come up with some sort of excuse. And drew a blank. Damn it. “Uhm. Well I... what am I supposed to say here? " Another relaization hit him. "Wait. Did the others hear it to? Shit, the channel was mirrored, back at headquarters, wasn't it? Great, now I gotta quit and move, maybe even take on a new identity.”

Riley flicked her fingers against his forehead. “ Stop losing your mind, doofus. When I realized what that little chat was going to be about, I jammed the signal. Pretended to have technical issues. You're welcome.”

Jack sunk down in his seat a bit, relaxing from at least not having to abandon his life. Yet. “Thank you, you're the best.”

A smug smile crept up on her lips. “I know, right? So, how about you reward me by telling me what really went down between the two of you.I want details.”

“I really don't think I should.”

“I can just ask Mac, you know. I just thought I'd be polite and talk the more embarrassed one of you first.”

“Why thank you. How considerate.” He scratched the back of his head. 

The girl practically holding him hostage stole a piece of his pizza, not even flinching at his complaints. “Look, the way I see it? I can still tell everyone. I could tell Webber. You think she would like to know about her agents hooking up behind her back, or?”

“We didn't hook up and we're still not.”

She leaned in. “Then what happened?”

Jack gave up. She clearly had the upper hand and more than enough patience to sit this out. Although he didn't believe she would actually go ahead and tell Webber. She would however torture him endlessly until he'd fess up. That was simply a fact. 

“Fine. I'll tell you. But I swear, if you tell anyone, “ Jack also leaned in closer, trying his best to sound threatening in his position, “I will make sure we both have to find a new life.”

“Sure, whatever.” 

Jack did his best to objectively explain what had happened with Mac. He also made sure to emphasize, that they had both been drunk and neither of them meant anything by it. Probably. Just guys getting a little out of control. Bros overstepping some boundaries. 

“So, to sum it up: You've been crazy about for Mac for like forever, finally were brave, or rather drunk enough to say something. Now both of you are being thick headed idiots, pretending you don't have any feelings for each other.” Riley had massaged the root of her nose in pure annoyance. 

“We don't. I just told you, we were just drunk.” Riley gave him a look that said 'not buying it' without any words. “Besides, he never said anything. I probably just pushed myself on him anyways.”

“My god you are dense.”

“What now?”

The young hacker queen sat back up in her seat and looked him straight in the eye. “Look. I was suspecting something was up between the two of you ever since I started working with you anyways.”

“Come one now, that's ridiculous.”

She raised on eyebrow. “If you say so. But come on. Did he, or did he not encourage you to speak up?” He nodded. “Did he, or did he not let you kiss him? Scratch that. Did he, or did he not invite you to make out with him?”

“I-I don't know. Maybe?” How did he end up being lectured on this by someone who was like a daughter to him? What exactly did he do to deserve this?

“You said he pulled you back in, when you were already afraid you'd crossed a line. And you guys only stopped because Bozer came crashing in.”

"I guess..." 

"You don't have to. I tell you. He likes you back, Jack." 

“Well might be all nice and well, but now what? I can't just go back on what I said. Even so, we can't just do whatever. We work together. We're friends. I can't risk that.”

“You could. You just have to know what it is, you want.”

“Well I don't.” 

“Then. Figure. It. Out. We need you two on your best, always. We rely on your co- dependence. All of us. This half assed denial won't do anyone any good. Either of you will most ceertainly get hurt and any of us might be in danger, if you can't work together.”

“Alright, alright. What would you have me do then? Start writing down my emotions, watch some soap opera, or-”

“Think. For once in your life, think a thing through. Then talk to him. I know it's hard, but I also know you can do this. You also kind of have to.”

“And you won't talk to Mac before I do?”

“Promise.”

Jack was shifting in his seat. “Fine. I'll think about it.” Jack snatched back the rest of the pizza Riley had been keeping to herself. “Now, can we go back to me being the adult here? What the hell were you thinking staying behind on your own back there?!”

They broke into a much more comfortable discussion that turned into their usual banter for the rest of the evening. He would have to think about this mess. Really think this time. For now he would just enjoy himself though. A guy needs to relax at some point after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Spoilers: There WILL be more, because I have at least one more chapter I am itching to write. We'll see how it plays out from there.


	3. Vegas, baby! pt.1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Slots, fast food, Shania Twain and of course lots of alcohol – yes we're in Vegas! Mac and Jack finally get to relax and let of some steam after everything went to hell on Cairo day. As it had to, which Jack still protests for future reference.

Just like he'd promised, Jack did a lot of thinking. All in all probably more than he ever did in school, heck, probably more than he did within the last few years of his life combined. Still, he hadn't really come up with an answer. The core of the problem, he'd finally dissected, was that he liked the way things were right now. Meaning back to normal and him and Mac working together like how they always did. They'd always had a special way of connecting and working together and that was a fact. 

Sure. Jack would think a lot about what might be. After all, Mac did allow him to cross a few lines on the physical side back when they got drunk. It wasn't like all that hadn't inspired some rather pleasant dreams he felt half guilty about. Yet in the end, Jack realized that was not what he was thinking of, when considering to go further. Well, not as a priority anyways. 

No, if he really went ahead and asked the boy scout out, well then there would be much more to it. It would mean to get closer to Mac, emotionally especially. Sure, they did talk about a lot of things already, but he wanted more. Wanted to be the person Mac could lean on, come home to. Share all the things which he would usually only keep to himself. All that mushy shit. 

There was only one teeny, tiny problem: their work. Not that they would do worse, no. They had their fights and disagreements before, so even if they had a problem, they would work it out. Most people they worked with would also probably be cool with it- well, Matty would have to be concerned about their work ethics, but in the end she would still support them. Probably.

None of that was the real problem though. The real problem would arise,once people outside the Phoenix would find out. Whenever you work together, or hell, even have a partner, it's always dangerous for either side of the couple. It was a point of possibly being compromised. It could easily be exploited. They already were ready to die for each other and wouldn't leave the other behind, even if it meant blowing the mission. How easy would it be for some crook to get behind that and sabotage them, then? Just kill one of them off for the heck of it even?

No. Jack had made up his mind. He was going to try and just stay by Mac's side and try to make the best of it. He tried to enjoy the little things. The quips, their banter, the ways in which he was allowed to talk to Mac most other people weren't. Things were good, so 'never change a working system' and all that.

Jack thought he'd set his mind in stone. Until Matty made them work on Cairo day. How could she? It had been bound to be a damn catastrophe right from the get-go. But no, why would anyone ever listen to him? There was a distinction between superstition and your very valid gut feeling! And sadly, his gut feeling was always right. Always! Why couldn't that damn thing ever just go ahead and predict something good for once?

Any way you looked at it, the day just sucked. Bozer getting hurt by the impersonator, Riley having to shoot the organization guy, heck the organization sending in a whole stupid army and even Murdoc walking free. Not to mention Mac setting the cold storage on fire and almost blowing himself up. Again. The Cairo Day curse.

Thoughts had been lurking in the corner of his mind since they'd almost gotten shot to death by the organization's army, but when he saw Mac behind that glass, potentially burning to death any second, it hit him like a damn truck. The regret. The stupid, stupid regret. 

It really shouldn't have and he should have been used to these situations. They risked their lives basically every day after all. Yet there he was, feeling a giant ball of ' but I should have, could have, would have' clogging up his throat. That stupid little cinema in his head rapidly playing through all the things he could have, maybe should have said.

He hated it. Hated the very presence of it. Sure, luckily he was a professional, and quick enough to use is head to get back into action and what he was supposed to be doing just as quickly, but – and it was a big but – would this happen every single time he thought Mac or himself to be in danger? 'Cause that would be a lot of time spend on sappy thoughts and a whole lot of unwanted, unneeded and especially unwelcome distraction. Potentially deadly distraction.

That's when he realized. He already was compromised. Simply by harboring the feelings did, not to mention trying to keep them penned up. The only question was: What on earth he was going to do about that?

Throw all his plans of shutting up overboard? Try and distract himself? Try and move on? Then again, neither of the latter options were true to him and probably only prolonged the inevitable. But then, what else was there?

While still breaking his head trying to get a grip on this mess, Jack was cleaning the last bits of the lab, all while Sparky was blabbering away as always. Maybe that was why he couldn't get anywhere with his thoughts. They kept being interrupted. 

“Could you shut up, for like five minutes? I got some stuff to think about and you're not helping”

“I most certainly could stop talking for any required amount of time, but I do believe that talking about thought processes aloud, helps them along.”

“Do you now?”

“That's what Bozer and Mac use me for after all. So far, I think I have been doing a fine job.”

“I dunno man. Can you keep a secret? I mean, does your programming even allow that?”, Jack was pointing at the robot with the end of his broom right now. Which was, certainly, super threatening.

“I seem to occasionally have crossed lines, when it came to what to tell to whom. You can ask Bozer about it.”

Jack laughed halfheartedly. “Figures.. Sorry, but I'm not taking any chances on this one.”

“Keeping things inside one's head is very unproductive Mr. Dalton. Speaking thoughts out loud and giving voice to formless concepts has been proven to help break thought cycles.”

Jack put down the broom. Now he was being lectured by a robot, who had worse social skills than a toddler. Not going to happen. “Look I'm not going to talk to you about this, OK? Period.”

“I'm not saying talk to me, necessarily. However, something seems to be bothering you, occupying your mind. You should talk to somebody.”

There really were only two people Jack could talk to. Mac, or Riley. Clearly, he couldn't ask Mac about this. He then thought back to the last time he talked to Riley about Mac.

He still hadn't gotten over being lectured on romance by someone he'd consider his daughter. 'Embarrassing' didn't quite cover that experience, even though he still appreciated her caring. Of course, he was less appreciative of her having been right. This had to stop happening. 

“Well, not gonna happen. I know what the only person I could talk to would say.”

“The question then is do you agree with their supposed solution ?”

Did he? Riley definitely would tell him to talk to Mac. Play with open cards. Maybe even go as far as following through with his feelings. She was that kind of straight forward person. But did Jack want that? 

He would have to take quite a high risk, especially after asking Mac to try and forget about ever having heard about what Jack felt like. So, if he was to every open that can of worms again, there was no way to close it back down. Even now the tape he put on it barely managed to keep the lid on after all, so to say. 

Damn it. 

Even thinking this, Jack knew the answer. This thing absolutely had the potential to blow up in their faces. Majorly. Maybe literally. It couldn't stay this way forever. 

The professional cleaning crew came in and further disrupted his train of thought. Apparently, they needed the room empty, even Sparky had to get out the way. Fine then, Jack thought. He'd take the lil' guy on a trip. He deserved it. After all, he helped save Bozer in his own way. On top of that, he might come in handy, if talking to Mac went sideways.

Yeah, he'd made up his mind. He had to talk to him. After all, the worst that could happen was that Mac would get upset and be mad at him for a while, rejecting him and then they could get on with the usual routine. That way the voice pressing on about what could have been would finally should up. His thoughts could finally stop running wild. He would also finally stop feeling like a damn coward all the time. 

To his surprise however, Mac was on his way out when he got to the blond's home. He wanted to go look for his dad. Yeah OK, that definitely had much more importance than his stupid mess of a head.

When Jack proposed to go to Vegas after they realized the trail had gone cold, it was only in a tiny part because he'd really wanted to go. After all it wasn't their manniversary, but he was always up for a trip to sin city. But mostly he just wanted to take some pressure off of his best bud's chest. He deserved some peace of mind. Which also included for Jack to keep his mouth shut for a while longer, but he was OK with that, too. Very OK. 

Jack also knew how heavy this whole his dad having vanished affair was on Mac's shoulders. What better way was there to forget about your troubles, than the glamorous town of Vegas after all? You leave your worries, struggles and most inhibitions at the door, as soon as you get there and just let go for a while. Exactly what the boy scout needed right now: A little bit of a free head and some good old all American fun – Vegas Style!

After packing a couple more bags and stopping by Jack's to get his vacation package, him, Mac and Sparky were on their way to Sin City. Yes, they took the weird little robot guy with them. Matty was going to be fuming. Which basically was ninety percent of the reason Jack even agreed to take him. 

“So, Vegas. Where do you plan to go this time?” Mac asked. At least he now seemed to be in a better mood. 

“Well, we can go anywhere. Depends on what'cha looking for. Gambling? Music? Food? Strippers maybe?”

“I just want to have some fun. Most of that sounds good, but do we have to go for strippers?”

“Come on man, it's Vegas. Those shows are supposed to be amazing!”

“Fine, fine. You know what? Between the two of us you're much more versed in the ways of partying in Vegas, how about you go ahead and make all the plans?”

“Alright, alright, I hear you. Don't you worry about a thing. I'll make sure you'll have the weekend of your life” Now to the other then percent of why he agreed to bringing Sparky. “Hey Sparks, you got all of Wikipedia inside that head of yours, right?”

“Yes, so long as I have internet access, I update daily.”

“Of course you do! Well uh, how about helping me out later then? Supply me some figures and facts and all that”

“Anything I can do to help.”

The rest of the drive went smoothly. Driving down Route 15, enjoying the view and chatting about lots of things, while really it was about nothing at all. Just how it was supposed to be.

They stopped halfway on Baker, not having had much to eat yet and all that. They ended up getting into a half fight about where to eat. In the end, they decided to eat at Fatburger and Buffalo's Express. Jack's choice, of course. He was absolutely convinced that while on vacation, you had to eat unhealthy things at some point. Didn't Mac know it was a rule? 

While sitting down and eating, Jack, with a fair amount of help from their little electronic friend, planned out the rest of their trip. They were going to have a blast. 

“So, what else could we do here?”, Mac asked. 

“Excuse me? We're only stopping for some food man.” 

“Oh no, no way. I refuse to go on a trip and only see the inside of a restaurant.” Ignoring Jack's rising protest, he faced Sparky and asked: “So. What else does the good town of Baker have to offer?”

After a short while of searching his archives, Sparky concluded that there were two things tourists typically liked to visit: A shop selling something called 'Alien Fresh Jerky' and the world's tallest thermometer. Three guesses which one of those Mac wanted to see. 

So, in exchange for the 'heart attack to come' as Mac called their lunch, Jack let himself get dragged off to the world's biggest thermometer. Yeah. That was a thing. He did appreciate Mac's tendency to be excited by weird things, heck, it usually was what saved both their asses – Yet, when it lead to him ending up staring at a giant thermometer for almost an hour, well he kind of just wanted to drive off on his own. He couldn't tell who was more excited, Sparky or Mac. It was a really close call. 

In the end, he'd always adore Mac's geeky little heart. The excitement in his eyes, the way they lit up, just like when he was able to craft something just for fun instead of to save their lives, it was always something that warmed Jack's heart. He just wanted the younger guy to be happy and if suffering in boredom for like an hour was what it took, then fine, bored he would be. That's what this trip was about. Getting his friend out of his head and into the fun. 

His own amusement mainly stemmed from everyone staring at them having their wired companion with them. Calling him their companion, or colleague freaked them out even more. He loved it. Jack was pretty glad they'd taken the robot with them at this point. They didn't ever really run out of things to talk about, and if they came up, silences were never uncomfortable either. Nonetheless it was still good to have a portable trivia machine with them. It kept the conversation light and easy effortlessly, which was a real relief, considering why Jack had originally visited Mac's house.

Pushing that thought to the back of his head, they continued on their way to Vegas. They agreed to stay at the Apache hotel. It was close enough to the Fremont street so they could easily get into the action, but far enough away to not get swept away as soon as they left the door.

Sadly, the owners were not very fond of Sparky. As a casino like area was part of the hotel, they figured a complex machine like him could easily be used for cheating. Which, technically wasn't wrong, but both the fact that they didn't have any such intention and that Mac's brain was just as much of a 'threat' weren't enough to convince them. They had to put the poor guy in protective custody with the janitorial staff for the time being. Seeing as how they immediately fell in love with the smart little bot, and both Mac and Jack swearing they would never tell a soul about this incident, they figured it was going to be okay. Hopefully. 

After finally booking their room, they let their bags be stored in their rooms and discussed which things they should explore. It was really, really hard to agree. There were simply too many things in general and a lot of things they couldn't agree on, on top. They also had to keep their budget in mind. This trip almost turned out to be more of a hassle than Jack had wanted it to be.

“Okay, you know what, screw it. Let's just get out there” he finally declared. “We should just stroll down that big, busy, overly bright and colorful street and get swept into whatever we wanna do, right?”

First, Mac seemed to want to protest, but shook his head and answered, “You know what? Let's do that. I mean it's Vegas, right?” as if trying to jinx them, he added, “How hard can it be to go out and have some fun?”

Turns out the answer to that was 'depends on your definition of fun'. They passed a great many hotels, casinos, restaurants, theaters and so much more. Everything was lit up, and the later it became, the more impressive it looked. Jack felt like a child during Christmas.

In the end, they agreed to take the middle road. Mac wanted to go to one of the many museums, while Jack really didn't feel like educating himself. Their compromise was visiting the Mob Museum. While it was a museum, it at least featured interesting pieces and some of the guns there really caught Jack's eye. In the end, he even had to admit it to the blond, it wasn't half bad. Mostly, Jack figured, due to the fact that with Mac, he had his own personal guide for the museum, who didn't mind both explaining things, but also goofing around at the exhibit. Okay, maybe he really enjoyed the whole thing. Not that he would ever admit to that.

As part of their compromise, Mac agreed to later on let Jack choose the evening program. First, Jack made sure that they had a delicious and filling dinner at a nearby steakhouse. The boy scout insisted that Jack was probably trying to kill him, considering the food choices he'd made for this trip. 

“Come on, you can watch what you eat any other day of the year. This is Vegas!” 

Mac had to laugh. “That's your basic reasoning for the entire trip, isn't it?”

“Obviously.” Jack gestured around himself. “Look around! This is as far and easily removed from reality and all things stress you can get.” He leaned forward. “Let the magic happen Mac”

“Jack-”

“Let. The magic. Happen.” 

The blonde shook his head in amusement but didn't say anything against it anymore. He just knew Jack was right, at least that's what he assumed. They finished eating the ridiculously delicious steaks and left, ready for the next stop. When they stepped out, it was already dark outside. Well, the sun had gone down. Their environment, on the other hand, had become more brightly lit than before. By now, the streets were busier than before, streams of people passed them by and the city seemed to have come alive. All the signs were fighting over their attention, begging to be seen, loud music swelled from seemingly everywhere, and people were talking, screaming, laughing, just having fun all around them. Yepp, they were in Vegas alright. 

“So,” Mac asked, “where are we headed?” The smile on his face and the light in his eyes made Jack more than happy. He seemed to finally be on board for some real Vegas fun and damn it, Jack was going to make sure he would get it. From the very beginning, Jack's eyes had fallen on a certain giant red sign. Fremont. 

Sparky and him had been discussing this particular spot before their choice fell on the Apache hotel. Luckily, they weren't too far apart from one another and even if they did end up totally trashed, they should easily be able to get back to their own hotel. 

Swiftly he pointed Mac in the right direction and they made their way through the crowd towards the large, brightly red lit front. 

“Tada” Jack made a theatrical gesture towards the big display above their heads. “It's got everything we need: All sorts of games and gambling, various bars and more food than we could hope to eat.”

“We just ate” Mac remarked.

“So? The night's still young and so are we!” An amused glance. “Yeah, yeah don't look at me like that. So, we going in or what?”

Thankfully, the blond seemed to be happy with the choice of establishment and gestured for the older guy to enter first. As soon as he took the first steps, Jack knew this was the right choice. The lobby was spacious and light, but elegant. In the background he could hear the slots and what was obviously a large crowd. That was exactly where they'd be headed. 

Both Mac and him agreed that, as they'd done well budgeting everything else, five hundred bugs for each of them would be a good amount to start their evening with. Jack really hoped that he wasn't going to lose the entirety of his starting money, but he'd have to see what lady luck had in store for him for today. 

Just as loud as it had sounded, the casino area was buzzing with people and life. The sound of the various and numerous slots, Roulette tables, some people winning, others losing and the tension of it all was almost overwhelming, but in the end, Jack felt right at home. The interior of the casino area was held in a sort of golden colored framing the ceiling and being part of the carpet. Overall, the room seemed very opulent and inviting, the shimmer of gold promising money. Oh hell yeah, Vegas baby!

At first the two of them stuck together, trying their hand at some Roulette – losing, of course. Luckily enough, neither of them had bet a lot of money. What's fifty bugs at the beginning of the night? Afterwards, Jack chose to attend the slots, while Mac went ahead and played some Poker, promising to lose on purpose once in a while, to make sure they'd not be thrown out. Before they parted, they agreed to meet up and hit the bar after an hour. After all, they didn't mean to spend the entire evening apart. 

Meanwhile, Jack was going insane. He knew that those machines were based on luck and that chances were he was going to lose money, but man, he must have really left his luck back in L.A. He could almost hear the damn thing laughing at him. Damn it. He saw the blond heading for the spot at the edge of the casino area they'd agreed to meet at and decided to give the machine only one more yank.

“Come on, come on....” Jack mumbled. He didn't actually suspect different outcome or anything, but he wasn't going to let the machine know that. It shouldn't know it had won. He turned around and signaled Mac that he was aware of his location. 

Suddenly, the machine behind him started blaring. 

Wait what?

The entire machine was lit up and the winning bells as well as seemingly every bit of noise the things had to offer was blaring right out of it. The word winner was blinking rapidly. 

Jack was stumped, just staring at the thing as it churned out money that it had been so hungry for the during the last hour. 

Finally processing it all, Jack leaped out his chair, “I won!! I seriously won!!!” His laughter reached through the entire room.   
With quick steps Mac reached the still celebrating Jack. “Guess this is your lucky weekend, Jack. Congrats!”

While Mac offered his hand for a high five, Jack opened his arms instead. “Come on man, bring it in Mac!” As Mac was giving him that certain dismissive look, he added, “I just beat a slot machine in Vegas while on a random weekend trip. Is that really just worth a high five?”

Caving in, Mac finally hugged him and congratulated him again. After they collected the full winnings and more good wishes from the staff, the two lucky guys headed for the bar and bought shots for everyone at the bar, to start the celebration off. 

Most of the evening now held the same in store for them. A lot of shots were taken, a lot of congratulations put forward, presumably to get a free shot out of the winner, and they partied alongside each other and the other guests. After all, their goal had never been to get rich, but to have a good time, and the later the evening grew, the more lose both of the Phoenix' agents let. 

Jack embarrassed Mac with his favorite Texas style dance moves and punny jokes, which he shared loud enough to hear for the people around them, while Mac impressed everyone with his party tricks and almost set a young woman's hair on fire, before both of them sang along to Shania Twain. Entirely off key of course. It was a blast.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Man this took forever to update. Sorry about that but I put a lot of research in, then 2020 did its things and just *gestures around herself* yeah. Here it finally is though and part 2 is in the works as well- promise!


	4. Vegas Baby! pt.2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A trope does as it has to, but with healthy, open communication, because that's what the show does and that's what I will do. Take this one from my cold, dead hands, 'cause that's the only way I will give it up. Hope you'll have fun, because I sure did!

The time just flew by as they were having fun and soon enough, they had to head back to their hotel and for their room. After all, they did have to head back tomorrow, so getting totally trashed was definitely not an option. Good thing they hadn't strayed far from the hotel they were staying at, and thank God they had already gotten their luggage brought up to their room, because Jack was most certainly not in the mood for any heavy lifting right now.

“You've GOT to be kidding me”, Jack said upon entering the room and finding a king-sized bed waiting for them.

“Hey, YOU handled the check in, man, don't look at me.” Mac said shaking his head, while he seemed more amused than angry.

For a while they ended up just standing in the doorway, as if the room was some sort of danger zone. Jack felt ridiculous.

“Okay, no, I'll go back down and give them a piece of my mind.”, the older man huffed.

“Jack-”

“No, no, I asked for a room with two beds and I'm paying for a room with two beds, so I should get two beds.”, the Texan was too riled up to notice the blonde trying to intervene.

“Jack.”

“I'll be right-”

Mac simply put his hand on Jack's chest to stop him from storming off. “Jack, you're drunk and I doubt you'll get your point across, dressed up with all those party decorations draped around your neck.” 

“So, now what?”

“Now,” Mac said calmly, “you'll relax, sit down and I'll see if I can't convince them.”

“But you're drunk too.”

“Yeah, but my people skills are better on average and suffer less under the influence of alcohol.”  
Jack wanted to protest, but really, he didn't have any examples in which this wouldn't have been true. So, he vaguely gestured down the hall and gave his OK, before sitting down on the big armchair in the room. Sitting down on the bed just felt wrong. 

With nothing else to do, he untangled the colorful garlands and flower necklaces wrapped around his neck. It had been fun while it lasted, but he certainly wasn't going to sleep in these. It didn't take too long before Mac was back and he didn't even need to say anything. His face did all the talking for him. “So,” Jack started, “no luck Mr. People Skills?”

“Yeah, no. Apparently you asked for a room for two people, not a room with two beds and this is the only one that is not booked by somebody else right now. So, we're stuck.”

“How did they think this was a good idea?”

“You really want to know?”, he asked, obviously sure that Jack didn't.

“Hell yeah I do! I want to know why I have to yell at them tomorrow for making me sleep on a damn armchair tonight.”

Granted, it was a fine chair, but not a good place to sleep on. 

“First of all: They thought we were a couple,” Mac continued without missing a beat or pausing, “second of all, who said you have to do that?”

Maybe Jack was a bit more drunk, than he thought. “Hold, on, back it up. They what now?”

Mac shrugged and obviously wasn't bothered at all, “Yeah I don't know how they ended up with that idea either.”

“A couple?” Jack was absolutely baffled. “I mean come on, we're not holding hands, kissing or any of that stuff. How would anyone get that idea?”

“I don't know Jack, I didn't ask. I just asked if they had another room.”

Jack let his head fall back, sighing. Why did these things always happen to them? Not the couple thing, but the complications in general. Especially complications, which got him into hot waters. Why did he have to use up all his luck on the slot machine earlier?

“Come on,” Mac said, “let's just deal with what we've got. We've made worse things work.”

“Yeah fine, let's deal.” Straightening himself up he hoped to seem stern instead of super tired. “You go to bed; I'll make myself at home over here.”

“Don't be ridiculous, Jack. We're not twelve, just move your stubborn ass over here and we can share.”

“I'm not being ridiculous. I just…” don't want to tempt myself, “…want to give you some space.” He'd seen enough movies to know how this could end and he wanted to spare himself the grief of having to deal with another slip up. 

Mac put his hands on his hips and his brows furrowed. “Come on man. I'm not stupid. I know what this is about.”

“Do you?”, Jack felt trapped. He really wanted to ignore the elephant in the room. He really didn't feel like now was the time to address any of this.

“Of course I do.”, he tried to hide it, but it was clear that he was annoyed at Jack's behavior. “You’re the one who told me to pretend nothing happened. So, this is me doing exactly that and going on as normal.” After taking a deep breath he pointed at the bed and added, “So stop being a big baby and get into bed.”

Jack didn't say anything and just scratched the back of his head. Oh boy. As if to set himself as an example, Mac started to get ready to go to bed. When the younger man took off his shirt and jeans before turning on the lamp on the night stand and climbing into the big bed, Jack really wished he had any sort of counter-argument here, but to his dismay, Mac was right. Normally they wouldn't even think twice, before taking any chance to crash any which way and get some sleep.

He cursed himself and slowly convinced himself to finally go to bed as well. On his way, he passed the light switch and turned off the central light. Unlike Mac's example though, he climbed into bed fully clothed as he was. He'd brought clothes to change into either way and it felt at least a little bit less awkward this way. Well, actually this was very, very awkward and sleeping in this shirt wasn't exactly comfortable, but there was no winning this.

Mac reached over to turn off the light on the nightstand, “Good night then.”, before turning towards the edge of the bed and going to sleep.

The room fell dark. “Yeah, yeah. Night, Mac.” and Jack felt like falling into a dark pit.

Even though the day and the partying had made him tired and the alcohol in his system didn't help keeping him energized either, there was no way he was going to fall asleep anytime soon. He was just laying there like a hard piece of wood, staring at the ceiling.

His whole plan of not getting into these kinds of situations again by finally speaking up had now officially and spectacularly failed. To his credit though, he had planned to resolve this, until they had to take care of the whole situation with Mac's dad and then there was really no moment to address anything. First, they had to concentrate on the task at hand. Then, which was the entire reason they were even in Vegas at all, Mac was so down on himself that talking about anything remotely romantic had been out of a question. 

Well. Maybe the only time he could have said something was when they were talking about how the guy behind the hotel counter thought they were a couple. Then again, what would he have said? 'Hey Mac, so, while we're on the topic, wouldn't it be fun to actually be couple? Put the joke on them? Haha, crazy idea, right?' Yeah, no. No way. 

Jack rubbed his face. God this was so stupid. What was he, a teenager? 

“Jack,” Mac slowly turned around to face him. 

Argh shit. “Yeah?”

“You can't sleep either, huh?” He couldn't see the blonde’s face very well, but he was sure he could see the worry on it. 

“Sorry, I'll try not to move anymore.” Keeping his friend up was the last thing he wanted to do. It was enough if one of them was wrecked from sleep deprivation tomorrow.

“How about you try and actually sleep?”, Mac grumbled.

“Yeah sorry, no can do pal.” Jack shifted into a position he considered comfortable enough to hold for however long it would take for him to pass out of exhaustion, “Too much on my mind.”

Mac slightly rose and rested his weight on his elbow. “Like what?”

“Now's not the time to talk about this stuff. Just get some sleep.”

Mac scoffed in clear disapproval. “We’re on vacation, having some time to rest and there is nothing to do BUT talk.”, his voice was sleepy, but it was clear he wasn't going to take any bullshit right now. “So, talk.”

Jack took a deep breath. Guess the jig is up.

“For the record, this is not how I planned for this to go. Like, at all.” The Texan was gesturing helpless in the dark. “I wanted to talk to you about this, but then the stuff with your dad came up and we both really needed a break after THAT and-”

“Jack,” he interrupted,” just say what you got to say. If I didn't want to talk now, I wouldn't have started.”

Fair enough. Except, even though a lot of time had passed since he'd decided to speak up, he still hadn't decided what exactly he actually wanted to say. “So, clearly you remember all that stuff I told you to forget about.” 

“Obviously.”

“Well, maybe I was being stupid about that.” Jack's lungs seemed to slowly prepare to quit functioning. Struggling against his own body trying to stop him, he continued, “After what happened in the lab on Cairo day, after seeing you almost set yourself on fire, I couldn't stop thinking.” Maybe it was rude, but he just kept gesturing to the ceiling instead of facing Mac. It seemed easier this way. “About things I wanted to say, about things that might have been if I didn't tell you to forget about, you know, all that.”

An awkward pause followed. Jack cursed himself for not having followed his own advice and bringing a shovel along this time. Did he never learn?

Mac finally broke the silence, but now his voice was soft, missing any trace of the annoyance he felt before. “Can I ask you something?”

“Hit me.”

“Why did you ask me to forget? To keep up pretending?”

Jack sighed. The younger man really knew how to dig right into him. “I didn't know how to handle things. I said things I still haven't even worked through entirely myself yet and”, shamefully he admitted, “I panicked.”

“Okay.” Mac's voice was as calm and soothing as ever. Meanwhile Jack's heart was trying to dig its way out of his chest. How unfair. “I understand that. So, what did you want to tell me then? Before we went looking for my dad, I mean.”

“Well, I realized these things are still on my mind. There is no pretending. You're on my mind, whether I like it or not.” He swallowed a big chunk of spit, even though is mouth seemed as dry as a desert. “So I figured I might as well face this.”

Mac was silent, giving him time to figure out his words. Jack was more than thankful for that because his brain didn't seem to function anymore.

“I wasn't just drunk, Mac. Even sober I catch myself wishing for our relationship to be more than just friends more and more often.” He could barely bring out words now as his heart tried to climb up out through his throat. “Especially when I think of how either of our lives might come to an end within seconds every day that we work. I might,” more inexplicable gulping from a dry mouth, “I might lose you without ever having said or done any of the things I want to. I don't want that anymore.” He finally found the courage to turn around and face Mac. “I love you, Mac. I really do.”

The younger man's eyes were wide open. So even though he technically already knew about Jack's feelings, he was still surprised. Oh man. Jack mentally prepared himself for the worst, feeling as if every second his body stretched his insides further, until he would just combust.

Luckily, the surprise on the blonde’s face quickly turned into a warm smile. “Thank you for finally being honest, Jack.” He inched a little closer. “You're not going to take it back this time, right?”

“Nah. I'm over running away.”

“Good.”, the younger man reached for his face, drew him in and softly kissed Jack, who's heart was still beating cartoonishly fast. “because I feel the same.” His voice was little more than a soft whisper against Jack's lips. “I love you too.” 

Jack couldn't hold back anymore and drew the blonde into a close embrace, kissing him softly as what felt like a ton of stones were lifted from his heart. He finally understood what those butterflies were, people kept getting caught in their stomachs, as they sure as heck were now having a party in his own belly.

After Jack let up from him, he asked the younger man. “So even though you felt like this, you just let me be an idiot about this, uh?”

“Yeah. I didn't know what to do about it either. I never thought you might feel the same, so that confession was kind of out of the blue and”, he laughed at himself before continuing, “I hadn't figured anything out either. I was fully prepared to just leave things as they were for the rest of time.”

“Guess we're both a bunch of idiots then, huh?”

“You can say that again.”, Mac agreed, still smiling.

They both laughed at themselves. All of the tension Jack had felt minutes ago had left his body. Now he was back to just feeling relaxed next to his best friend. Wait. Best friend? There was still a question left in the room, wasn't there? “So, are we like, a thing now?”, Jack asked carefully.

“No,”, Mac's voice was dripping with sarcasm, “we’re just going back to being friends, friends who are in love.” he shook his head, “Come on Jack, I thought we were done being ridiculous.”

“Right. One more potentially ridiculous question though.”

Mac was obviously amused but decided to indulge Jack. “Shoot.”

“Were you also worried about being compromised at work, or was that just me?”

Mac let out a little laugh. “No, no me too. I mean we can't just go ahead and tell everyone either. We have to figure things out for ourselves first before we can go flaunting about.”

Another stone dropped from Jack's heart. “Yeah, I know. We'll be fine though, right?”

“Yeah.” The confidence in Mac's voice was highly reassuring for Jack. “I mean even hotel receptionists get it wrong and we've already been used as bait for one another. It doesn't really make that much of a difference. Besides” even in the dark Jack could see the smile that was flashed at him, “we're already ridiculously co-dependent and that's something everyone knows.”

Jack burst into laughter about that one. It was the truth. Without Mac, Jack didn't have any real purpose at work. After all, his primary objective was to protect the boy wonder. Except when he was sent on a mission without him, whilst which he would not be able to wait to get back home. How had he been able to fool himself all this time again? Meanwhile Mac expressed time and again that he needed Jack and his ramblings so he could think, as well as using him, and his phone, as assets in his plans on a regular basis.

“Can't argue with that.”, Jack agreed.

As they were already laying close to one another, Jack took the open invitation and resumed kissing Mac. While he was pretty sure he was allowed to do this now, he was still a little hesitant, just in case Mac wanted to take it slow.

Apparently, the younger man had no such thing in mind though. There was no hesitation on his side, as he enthusiastically returned Jack's kiss, and started taking control, pressing back with more demanding kisses. While Jack was surprised, he certainly wasn't objecting and let the boy scout dictate the pace.

For a while his partner seemed content just making out, until he pushed on Jack’s upper body so that the older man rolled onto his back. Mac rolled over with Jack so he could sit himself up on the other man's hips. 

“Whoa there, cowboy,” Jack said as he separated their lips for a moment, “sure you wanna go that far right now?”

Mac straightened himself and gave Jack some space “Not if you don't, of course. I can wait.”

“No, no, that's fine I just, you know, thought we might need some uh,” Jack once again felt like was a nervous teen for being embarrassed by something like that but he just never really had to deal with a situation like this, “tools? Something to make things go smoothly? You know what I mean.”

Mac chuckled. “Yeah, I know.” He bent down to give Jack a quick kiss. “But you know,” the blonde placed another kiss just below Jack's chin, “there are plenty of things” now kisses were being planted down the older man's neck and the sensation drove him insane little by little, “we can do without it.”

There was no way Jack could resist what Mac was suggesting. Every inch of his body was begging to also get some attention from the gorgeous young man hovering above him. 

Of course, he had a good enough idea what Mac had in mind, but he indulged him and said, “Alright, show me what you got then.”

Mac didn't need to be told twice. He slowly opened the buttons on the crumpled shirt Jack shouldn't have gone to bed with in the first place. As he peeled back the fabric little by little, Mac placed teasing little kisses on the newly exposed skin, leaving a tingling trail all over Jack's chest. Meanwhile Jack buried one of his hands in the blonde locks, trying to maintain some degree of control, although he was perfectly aware that due to his earlier invitation he was basically at Mac's mercy. Can't blame a guy for trying though. 

Almost painfully slowly, testing out Jack's ever decreasing patience, Mac started trailing down, leaving a burning trail of kisses that lead to the waist band of Jack's pants. With a coy grin on his face he looked up and said, “I bet you regret going to bed fully clothed by now, don't you?”

Jack cursed himself internally. Of course he did now, but technically this was exactly the kind of situation he had intended to avoid. Now that they had cleared things up though? Yeah, he very much felt restricted by the fabric that held them back from pushing forward. “How about we do something to change the situation instead of pointing fingers, Mister?”

Mac laughed at him for a second, before crawling up towards Jack's face to firmly kiss him. The hand tangled in the blonde locks tightened its grip to signal his approval to Mac. Meanwhile, Jack decided to seize the opportunity and let his free hand wander over the other man's upper body. He made sure to take in every inch carefully, now that he finally got his chance. His fingertips slowly traced over the younger man's chest, playfully brushing against his nipples. Then, like following a path, they found their way to the blonde’s abdomen, circling his well-defined muscles, caressing them. 

Mac seemed to approve of Jack's exploratory efforts, as evidenced by the deep, hungry kisses he was rewarding the Texan with, while occasionally moaning into his mouth. Continuing their journey, Jack let his fingers slip down until they hit the waistband of Mac's boxers, where he let them dance around for a bit, smiling to himself. He might have been an idiot before, but now he was at an advantage, seeing as how the younger man was already down to his boxers. 

Receiving no protest, Jack slowly let his hand slip into Mac's underwear. He reached for the blonde’s hard member, eager to spur him on. When he firmly closed his hand around Mac's dick, the younger man had to break up their kiss, drawing in a sharp breath. For a little while, Jack pumped his hand up and down, while enjoying the feeling of Mac's increasingly heavy breaths against his lips, until he decided that the last piece of clothing had to go.

Ignoring the rising mild protest from the younger man, Jack carefully removed his hand from out of Mac's pants, as well as moving the hand from the blonde locks down. While he moved his hand down, Jack let his nails trail over the other man's chest and waist, before resting it on Mac's hips.

Playfully, Jack asked “Would you mind?” while both his hands were tugging on the superfluous piece of fabric, demanding for it to be gone.

Mac smiled before drawing him into another kiss. While Jack let himself be momentarily swept away by the sweetness that overcame him, the blonde placed his right hand on the older man's thigh, before playfully letting the elastic band of Jack's trousers snap on his hip. “Only if we level the playing field.”

“Alright, fair enough.”, Jack mumbled in agreement. 

While Mac gracefully climbed off Jack before swiftly removing his boxers, Jack fumbled about with the fly of his pants, which, of course, had to have become jammed. Just his luck. 

When Mac checked in on him, he very clearly tried not to laugh. “You OK there, Jack?”

For a few more seconds, Jack stubbornly tried undoing his stupid pants, before admitting, “Apparently not, no. I'm being cockblocked by my own pants.”

Mac burst into a snorting laughter, leaving Jack a little concerned that their evening might be cut short right then and there. Luckily, the boy scout calmed down rather quickly and came back over to him. “Let me see.”

After tugging on his fly just as much as Jack did before, Mac glanced up at him. Oh no, Jack was more than familiar with this look.

Fully serious the younger man asked, “How fond are you of these pants?”, giving them another concerning look.

“We're NOT blowing up my pants, Mac.”

“Who said anything about explosives? So?”

Jack scratched his head, weighing his words carefully. “I'm not all too fond of them, I guess.”

“Great!” Before the word fully reached Jack's ears, Mac grabbed two sides of the older man's pants and put a strong pull on them, ripping the fly apart. Jack didn't know what he had expected, but at this point not much of Mac's improvisation could surprise him anymore. At least this time his phone hadn't had to suffer.

Growing visibly impatient, Mac ordered Jack to lift his ass and swiftly removed both his pants and boxers in one smooth go. For a second Jack was left wondering, if that smart guy had just used one of his physics tricks on him for this. He wouldn't put it past him. 

Either way, the mental distraction lasted but a second and Jack was starting to miss the weight of the younger man resting on top of him, so he invited him back over and onto himself. The blonde gladly accepted the invitation and greeted him with more of the sweet kisses that Jack was already certain he would get addicted to in no time. 

For a few moments, they just enjoyed each other’s company- Mac leading on with kisses, as Jack had his arms wrapped around the younger man, caressing his back. Thereafter, the Texan decided it was time to pick back up where they had left off and let one of his hands slide down over Mac's waist, past his hips and back onto his still erect member. 

Mac leaned into his touch, urging him on. For a little while, Jack resumed stroking along Mac's length, while still occasionally caressing his back and watching closely as the blonde’s breathing became labored once more. This time he pushed him a little farther, patiently waiting until he could feel his partner slightly tremble underneath his fingertips, before taking it a step further. 

He slowly removed his hand from its task, sliding it up on Mac's hip resting it there for a second. Wriggling himself lower into the narrow space between them, he straightened himself up slightly before lightly pulling on Mac's hip. “Come here.”, he invited the younger man over. 

The moonlight flooding the room only allowed for a vague idea of what Mac's facial expression actually was, but Jack swore that the boy scout had a slightly puzzled look on his face. Nonetheless, Mac accepted the invitation and moved up towards Jack until he was kneeling close to the older man's face. “You sure about that?” As he said this Mac's voice was filled with genuine concern.

“Would I have asked you over if I wasn't?”, his voice was very light though he did feel slightly offended. He was a man of his word after all. He placed a light kiss on Mac's firm skin just beneath his abdomen, before mumbling, “Just trust me.”

Trusting him indeed, Mac placed one hand on Jack's shoulder while his other gently cupped his face, before relaxing into Jack's tender touch. While Jack's last time doing something like this had been way back in college, he was sure he could remember how this worked. Like riding a bike, right? Lightly tugging on Mac's hip encouraged the younger man to bring himself even closer, bringing him close enough for Jack to easily access his cock. Jack's left hand was meanwhile placed on Mac's leg, just to help him stabilize a little.

Carefully, just to get a feel for it, he placed kisses along Mac's entire length, causing the younger man to let out a slight hiss and tightening the grip on Jack's shoulder. Alright, off to a good start. Glancing up at his partner, he saw the lust and impatience radiating from the blond’s face and it sparked a heat inside him as well. How had he been able to wait so long for this? 

Luckily, the wait was now over for both of them, as he carefully took Mac's lightly dripping tip into his mouth. Another sharply drawn in breath from the younger man as well as a light pull on Jack's head urged him on. Little by little, taking his time, Jack took almost the entirety of Mac's pulsing dick into his mouth and started moving his head back and forth.

Mac's nails were now digging into Jack's shoulder while he was holding on and after a short while the blonde started to let out small, muffled moans in between his heavy breaths. A few minutes passed in which Jack, who was closely watching for Mac's reactions, increased and decreased his speed strategically so as to drive the younger man as close to insanity as possible. 

Jack could feel his partner beginning to tremble in his hands as his breathing became more erratic and was ever so often interrupted by small whines. Though he knew that Mac had tried to hold back, he could feel the younger man beginning to move his hips rhythmically as his patience grew ever thinner. Actually, Jack figured, this wasn't such a bad idea. Gripping Mac's hip tighter and decreasing his own speed to avoid any accidents, he pulled on Mac's hip, encouraging him to move as he pleased.

After a short moment of hesitation all barriers of self-control seemed to have broken within Mac. He dug both his hands firmly into Jack's shoulders and began thrusting his hips more forcefully. Soon, he'd found a rhythm that he enjoyed and Jack had to carefully make sure to match Mac's thrusts in such a way that his gag reflex was still manageable.

Soon, Mac's breathing turned into panting and Jack had to increase the support he gave for the younger man's body. Between his extremely labored breaths, his partner was calling Jack's name, which send chills down the older man's body and he could tell the blonde was close to his climax. Only moments later, Mac moved back just enough to slip out of Jack's mouth just in time, before he came, leaving his mark on mostly Jack's shoulders and chest. 

To help his partner calm down, Jack was stroking his leg as well as his back and let him breathe. After catching his breath, Mac threw his arms around Jack's neck before he lowered himself to sit back down on Jack's lap and gave him a long, deep kiss in appreciation. When he leaned back a bit separating their lips, he was smiling brightly. Jack loved this expression on his face. The boy scout's face lit up like a thousand suns when he was truly happy and it was a beautiful sight. Knowing he was the cause of it right now made Jack immeasurably happy in return. 

Mac was stroking over the short hair on the back of Jack's head and still smiling when he asked, “Have you done this before?”

Jack was trying not to sound too flabbergasted, but horribly failed. “I might have.” Stealing another kiss, he added, “It's been ages though.”

Letting out a slight laugh the younger man concluded that “There are just some things you don't unlearn how to do.” After indulging in a few more very snuggly kisses that still made Jack's head swim, Mac lifted himself up and gestured for the older guy to lay back down. “Your turn.”

The mischievous grin on Mac's face felt like both a promise and a threat to Jack. Usually this meant that something was about to blow up, crumble down or that his phone was in danger. He was curious to find out what it could possibly mean in this situation.

Doing as he was told, Jack let himself slide back down until he was laying flat on his back once more. Mac rewarded his obedience with more kisses. These kisses were aggressive though – they were deep and hungry, taking Jack's breath away. Slowly, his partner let his fingers wander over Jack's upper body, taking his sweet time tracing over every inch of it. Shivers of anticipation ran through the Texan's body. 

After lingering like this for a while, Mac straightened his upper body. He then proceeded to pick up both of Jack's hands and placed them on the blonde’s hips. The older man took the hint and tightly held onto the younger guy's hips as was asked of him. Supporting the rest of his weight with his hands on Jack's chest, Mac positioned his ass right above Jacks pulsing erection. For a moment he adjusted his position, closely watching Jack's face for hints of the perfect position with those sharp blue eyes of his.

When the younger man started moving, grinding back and forth over Jack's dick, the older man couldn't help but let out a deep groan. “Oh, good Lord.”, he pressed out between his teeth. The grin on the blonde’s face grew bigger, when he got confirmation that his plan was working out. Giving Jack enough time to get used to the sensation, Mac kept his pace for a while. When the younger man pressed down harder on him, increasing his efforts, Jack's fingertips dug deeper into the soft skin on the blonde’s hips as he let out several curses, as the lust coursing through him reached new heights. Unable to resist, he started tugging on Mac's hips ever so slightly, guiding him into an even more intense rhythm.

At this point Jack's breathing was heavy and to his own surprise, he wasn't going to last long like this. It was probably because added to the sensation of feeling the younger man grinding on him, watching his heavily breathing face and his muscles straining as he moves, he was also imaging what it would feel like when they finally got the chance to go even further. 

Letting his thoughts wander, Jack could feel his climax build up inside him. The older man let his head fall back, enjoying each wave of passion crashing over him as they came. Unsurprisingly, Mac caught onto how close Jack was and decided to tease him by significantly decreasing his speed, edging the older man on slowly. 

“Oh Christ, Mac!”, Jack pressed out between drawing in desperate breaths, “Have some mercy.”

Letting out a deep, echoing laugh Mac let Jack 'suffer' for a bit longer, before he picked the pace back up without warning, pressing down harder than he did before. Jack was absolutely overwhelmed and his orgasm came crashing down on him like a wave sweeping up a boat in a storm on the open sea. Mercy clearly wasn't in the younger man's vocabulary.

While Jack was catching his breath, Mac climbed down from him and huddled himself up next to the older guy, wrapping his right arm around him. Naturally, Jack automatically took the blonde in his arms. Even while his heart rate was still coming down, he could feel the peacefulness that began to sweep over him just laying like this. It felt so natural and right to have his partner right there in his arms, just feeling him breathe beside him. Enjoying the moment, Jack leaned his head over slightly and kissed the blonde’s forehead. 

With a smile carrying in his voice, Mac asked, “So, I take it you're doing good?”

“Yeah, definitely.” Lightly teasing he added, “Even though I was still missing that mercy, ya know?”

Mac let out a noise which could only be described as a giggle. Had he always been this adorable or was Jack just drunk on endorphins? On top of being actually drunk that was. “You were enjoying every second of it, don't you lie.”, Mac said before placing a lazy kiss on Jack's chest. 

For a good while they just stayed like this, before Mac broke the comfortable silence they'd been having. “I'm guessing neither of us is in the mood to get up and shower right now, correct?” Sounding clearly as tired as Jack felt, it was more of a request than a question.

“Oh, you bet I'm already half asleep.”, half-joking he added, “I'm an old man and need my regular eight hours of sleep you know.”

Shaking his head Mac just said, “You're never going to stop being ridiculous, are you?”, before slightly shifting himself into a comfortable sleeping position, closely snuggled up to Jack.

“Of course not!”, Jack retorted fake offended, “It’s what makes me charming.”

Lazily caressing Jack's side, clearly already half-asleep Mac mumbled, “You're lucky I have a soft spot for idiots.”,

Jack chuckled lightly, feeling the heaviness of sleep creeping up on him as well. Before he could give into it though, he quickly grabbed a paper towel from the nightstand and cleaned himself while trying to move as little as possible.

After the Texan carelessly discarded the piece of paper, Mac moved up slightly and planted a soft kiss on Jack's cheek before cuddling back up. Soon, both of them sank into a peaceful sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed! I already have some half-cooked ideas of how I want to continue, so stay tuned while I re-watch season 2 to get some more ideas :D
> 
> PS: And people told Jack that all those years of carnival hot dog eating contest were a waste of time, hah!  
….  
I'm sorry.


End file.
